A $1.8 million whale-shaped playground that opened in the centre of Cronulla’s shopping strip last September got off to a bad start: a boy’s “legs disappeared, almost to the knees” when he fell through the springs of one of its two in-ground trampolines, local paper The Leader reported.
A month later, the swirly blue slide, which comes out of the whale’s tail, was found to contain defective bolts and was shut down. That was before local Facebook pages started receiving reports of parents finding faeces smeared inside it.
The new playground at Cronulla Plaza.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone
But the unfenced and unshaded playground, which is divided over two sites at each end of Cronulla Mall, has become a whale of a problem for Sutherland Shire Council after a string of serious safety incidents.
Numerous passers-by have fallen into the trampolines, sending one elderly lady to hospital, and the metal plates the council installed after those falls became so hot in the sun that at least two children were burnt while sitting on them.
The playground has become a lightning rod in the community. Sutherland Shire Council has received 13 complaints about its safety, but a local councillor says it is only “a very small minority that are making a lot of noise” and, despite the “bit of tweaking” that needs to be done, it is a very successful park.
In January this year, shortly after the playground opened, an elderly woman fell into one of the trampolines that sit just below ground level. She was taken to hospital and left with a broken nose and a bruised face. Months on, she still has no taste or smell.
Then, an elderly man drove his mobility scooter directly over the trampoline. CCTV footage shows him wedged between the ground and his scooter before people help him up. Once back on the scooter, he proceeds to mount two small domes made of soft-fall a few metres away.
The council in early October covered the trampolines with metal sheets as a safety measure while waiting for stronger springs to arrive from overseas, and that was when things got worse. With no shade sails in the park (the council said they would be installed soon), those metal plates became very hot.
Mother Ashleigh Markou’s three-year-old daughter was burnt when she sat on the plates she had previously known as trampolines.
Markou heard her daughter shriek and then scream: “It’s so hot! It’s so hot! My leg is so hot!”
Metal plates (left) installed over the top of the trampolines, and (right) the burn suffered by Ashleigh Markou’s daughter.Credit:
She “didn’t quite realise what she had burnt herself on”, but then Markou saw the plates. “You could have fried an egg on it,” she said. The burns sustained on her daughter’s leg were so significant they are still there two weeks later.
Another mother, who did not want to be identified, also showed photos of her child being burnt on the plate. Both wrote to the council, but neither has received a response.
‘Temporary measure’
Sutherland Shire Council erected temporary fencing around the trampolines and wooden sheets over them late on Wednesday, after the Herald asked about the park’s safety.
A council spokesman said it had also installed planter boxes around the trampolines in June this year as a “temporary measure” until the final stage of design was complete.
Supplier manufacturing issues were delaying the installation of sun shades in the park, he said.
“The southern playground shade pods will be installed in December 2024, and the northern playground shade pods will be installed in January 2025,” the spokesman said.
“Both playgrounds have been designed in accordance with Australian standards, reviewed under [the] council’s corporate safety procedures and certified as fit for purpose by the external playground designer and manufacturer.”
For Leanne Farmer, a former independent councillor who lost her seat in the September elections and who continues to campaign for greater transparency on the council, that’s not good enough.
“A council has a duty of care to its residents and its visitors,” she said. “They haven’t adhered to their own play and domain strategies. It’s maladministration.”
Carol Provan, a current councillor who campaigned for the playground project, said there were “some tweakings” to be made. But she dismissed the video of the elderly man falling into the trampoline as “a set-up”.
“When you look at the video, it was an older man on one of those electric mobility things, and he just sort of rolled over, which I thought was a bit odd,” she said.
“I’m very proud of [the park]. I’m glad to have my name on the plaque.”
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